


Drowned

by shontos_garden



Category: Tatta Hitotsu no Koi
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-10
Updated: 2014-11-10
Packaged: 2018-02-24 19:37:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2593820
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shontos_garden/pseuds/shontos_garden
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Originally posted to Livejournal July 2008.</p><p>A belated birthday gift for <a class="i-ljuser-profile" href="http://kitsune714.livejournal.com/profile"><img class="i-ljuser-userhead"/></a><a class="i-ljuser-username" href="http://kitsune714.livejournal.com/"></a><b>kitsune714</b>. ♥♥</p>
    </blockquote>





	Drowned

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted to Livejournal July 2008.
> 
> A belated birthday gift for [](http://kitsune714.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://kitsune714.livejournal.com/)**kitsune714**. ♥♥

**then**

He knew he would never forget their first night together, a cold night in autumn, after he'd held her in his arms and asked her if they could stay like that for a while. He didn't like to think about what came later, about her father, and his mother, and the drowned ring of steel. But that night, _that night_ \- he was sure the heartstopping memory of it would stay with him forever.

"Nao," he'd told her that night on the tiny boat, "I have nothing to offer you." It tore at him to say the words, and he'd choked over the pain in his throat, the squeezing of his chest. "This is all I have - my-my body. Myself, just me. I know it's not enough-"

"Shhhh," she'd said, pressing her hand to his mouth, silencing him, and he'd had to fight hard to maintain his composure, seeing what he saw in her eyes. "It's enough, Hiroto. It will always be enough. I want _you_. I don't want anything more."

It was all there, blazing out of her face, bright and shining: her innocence, her faith, and something more, something ferocious and greedy, and even if he'd been stronger, less desperate, less blinded and more pragmatic, even then, he wouldn't have been able to resist. He'd pulled her down from where she stood between his knees, and he followed her down into the nest of old blankets and he'd warmed her pale skin with his touch, and in the dim torchlight, which rolled with the rocking of the boat, he'd laid her down beneath him, and he let himself love her the way her eyes demanded.

Nao clung to him that night and gave herself to him, and he took her over and was taken over, and he drowned in her again and again.

 

 

**now**

"You know," she said as she looked over her shoulder at him, "I always loved you. Always. From the beginning."

"Which beginning would that be?" he asked, looking down at the weeds underfoot before he cocked his head at her, but he was teasing. This was a conversation they'd been having for years now, and yet Nao was watching him quite seriously, her direct gaze as straightforward as ever. Overhead, within the dark blue canopy of sky, stars wheeled in familiar and unfamiliar patterns while the tiny sparks of dozens of fireflies improbably lit the empty lot they'd wandered into on the way home. There had been so many beginnings, and so many endings.

"You know," she repeated steadily. Hiroto drew closer, taking her hand in his, palm to palm, future to future, and he laced their fingers together. A veil drew over the stars, blotting out their twinkling lights, and yet the fireflies remained, bright and near and persistent. Warm summer rain began to fall. She matched his stride, and he held her as tightly as she held him.

"Yeah," he said quietly with a sidelong glance, wet eyes to wet eyes. They were continually reborn in water. "I do."

 

 

FIN

* * *


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